Arsenal: Surprise €20.2m bid mooted

With Thomas Vermaelen looking ever more likely to depart The Emirates this summer, it leaves Arsenal with a squad containing just two established centre backs. Although they have defenders capable of covering in that positon, they will certainly be looking to add a further centre back to bolster their squad and protect against injury and suspension.

And Arsenal are reportedly looking at the possibility of bringing in Manchester City centre back Matija Nastasic.

The Gunners are preparing to make a €20.2m bid for the defender according to The Metro.

Arsenal set to make £16million (20.2m Euro) transfer offer for Manchester City star Matija Nastasic

The news outlet also reports that Arsene Wenger has been an admirer of the player for several years and tracked him before he moves to Manchester City.

As the club broke Financial Fair Play rules, they have had their squad limited to just 21 for the upcoming season in European competitions. This has made it increasingly difficult for Manchester City to include all of their foreign stars in the squad.

As they are close to bringing in Porto defender Eliaquim Mangala, Nastasic would be a likely candidate to be moved on from The Etihad.

The 21-year old joined Manchester City from Fiorentina in 2012 in a deal estimated to have cost around €15 million. He has since gone onto make 50 appearances for the side in two years. While impressing on occasions, he has failed to nail down a regular place in the starting eleven.

Signing Nastasic would continue some excellent business by Arsenal. They have already brought in Alexis Sanchez and Mathieu Debuchy and are being heavily linked with both Sami Khedira and William Carvalho.

3 Comments

Arsene, u are fool for saying; No signing of new striker. if u fail to sign striker and u fail arsenal next season, i promise u, u will be sack automaticaly, the price Milan demand for baloteli is not too much, sign him cos he get all we [email protected]

This will be a good one for us. @joseph, baloteli might look cheap to get but can destroy the team. He does not do anything for the team but himself. He lacks discipline and low work rate keeping in mind that we have ozil who has a low working rate in the mid. I would prefer by far Jackson Martinez, javi Martinez/schneiderlin, smalling for vermaleen and nastatic.